The one who kicked the door open was a maiden who looked sixteen or seventeen, dressed in a pale gold palace dress.
She was breathtakingly beautiful. Her long golden hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, her facial features were as exquisite as if sculpted by angels, and her eyes shone as brightly as stars.
Yet at that moment, her stunning face was filled with anxiety and worry, with even traces of tears lingering at the corners of her eyes.
She was Qian Mo's biological older sister, Qian Renxue.
She was also Spirit Hall's Young Master, an undercover agent currently hidden within the Heaven Dou Empire under the identity of Crown Prince Xue Qinghe.
According to the original plan, she should have remained in Tian Dou for several more years.
But a few days earlier, when Qian Mo awakened his martial soul and that soaring Auspicious Qi shook the entire continent, Qian Renxue, far away in the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, had also been affected.
An inexplicable, overwhelming sense of unease and longing suddenly seized her.
She felt that something had happened to her younger brother—her precious, doll-like little brother whom she had not seen in six years!
Or perhaps something earth-shatteringly wonderful had happened?
Either way, she could not sit still any longer!
What undercover mission? What Heaven Dou Empire?
To hell with all of it!
No matter how vast heaven and earth were, her younger brother came first!
Thus, this future Angel God immediately abandoned her post. She rode through the night from Heaven Dou City at breakneck speed, forcing her way through every checkpoint and charging straight back to Spirit City.
The moment she entered the city, she rushed directly to the Papal Palace.
"Xiao Mo!"
Qian Renxue burst into the room and immediately spotted the figure still asleep on the bed.
The heart she had been holding in suspense finally eased by half.
Thank goodness. Her younger brother was fine.
She rushed to the bedside in a few strides and swept Qian Mo, blanket and all, into her arms.
"Xiao Mo! My precious younger brother! Are you all right? Did anyone bully you? Let your sister have a look!"
Holding Qian Mo, Qian Renxue examined him from left to right, top to bottom, nearly stripping him naked for a thorough inspection.
Qian Mo was jolted awake by the sudden violent shaking.
He groggily opened his eyes and saw a magnified, exquisitely beautiful face streaked with tears.
"Who is it... this early in the morning? Are you going to let me sleep or not..." he muttered.
"It's me! Xiao Mo, I'm your sister! Don't you recognize me?" Seeing her younger brother's adorable sleepy expression, Qian Renxue's heart practically melted, and she could not resist kissing his cheek.
Sister?
Qian Mo's mind took a while to turn before he dug up the person associated with that title from the corners of his memory.
Qian Renxue!
His so-called older sister?
He remembered seeing her a few times when he had first arrived six years ago.
Back then, she had been a little girl of around ten, but she had already been a budding beauty—and an obsessive younger-brother fanatic.
Whenever she saw him, she either hugged him and buried her face in him or pinched his cheeks. She also loved feeding him all sorts of strange things.
Later, he heard that she had gone to Tian Dou as an undercover agent, and Qian Mo had honestly breathed a sigh of relief.
Who would have thought that she would come back early?
"Why did you come back?" Qian Mo asked with a yawn.
"I was worried about you!" Qian Renxue hugged him, tears flowing again. "A few days ago, I was so restless. I kept feeling that something had happened to you, so I stopped caring about anything else and rushed back! Thank goodness you're fine. You scared your sister to death!"
Qian Mo: "..."
Big sis, wasn't your intuition a little too accurate?
Something did happen here, but it was all good news!
You're crying and making such a fuss like I'm about to die.
Just as the siblings were having their "heartfelt" reunion, Qian Renxue finally noticed the third person in the room.
A little girl in a crimson dress, standing helplessly in the corner by the wall.
Qian Renxue's expression instantly changed.
It was the look of a beast guarding its food after spotting a potential threat.
"Who is she?" Qian Renxue's voice turned cold, and the arm around Qian Mo tightened.
Why was there an unfamiliar girl in her younger brother's room so early in the morning?!
And such a pretty little girl, too!
What was she trying to do?
Was she trying to seduce her younger brother while she was away?
At such a young age, and already up to no good!
Zhu Zhuqing shuddered under that hostile stare and instinctively shrank farther back.
This beautiful older sister... was terrifying.
"Her name is Zhu Zhuqing. I picked her up," Qian Mo quickly explained, feeling as if he were about to be strangled. "Sis, put me down first. You're going to squeeze me to death."
"Oh, oh, oh! Sorry, sorry!" Qian Renxue hurriedly loosened her grip, but she still kept Qian Mo firmly protected in her arms as she watched Zhu Zhuqing warily.
Picked her up?
Since when did her younger brother like picking up things like this?
No, she had to interrogate her properly.
"You. Come here." Qian Renxue crooked a finger at Zhu Zhuqing, her tone unfriendly.
Zhu Zhuqing's little face went pale with fright, and she looked toward Qian Mo as though pleading for help.
Qian Mo patted Qian Renxue's arm and said helplessly, "Sis, don't scare her. She's timid. She's Mom's... no, His Holiness the Pope's adopted daughter now."
"Adopted daughter?" Qian Renxue froze.
Mother... had taken in an adopted daughter?
When had that happened? How had she not known?
She looked at Zhu Zhuqing, then at her younger brother.
A thought suddenly formed in her mind.
Could it be... Mother had adopted her to find Xiao Mo a child bride?
Mm! That had to be it!
Xiao Mo was now the Holy Son. His status was noble, so his future wife naturally could not be an ordinary person.
Although this Zhu Zhuqing's origins were unknown, she was fairly pretty and could barely be considered worthy of her younger brother.
Adopting her as a daughter, raising her from childhood, and knowing everything about her—it was not a bad choice.
At that thought, the way Qian Renxue looked at Zhu Zhuqing instantly changed from "a wary enemy" to "a picky elder sister-in-law inspecting her future sister-in-law."
She looked Zhu Zhuqing up and down while muttering to herself.
"Mm... she looks all right, but she's too skinny, and her butt isn't big enough. She might have trouble bearing children."
"But she's still young and has room to grow. Feed her more papaya later, and she should be able to make up for it."
Zhu Zhuqing: "???"
Qian Mo: "..."
Sis, what kind of wild nonsense was going through your head?!
We're only six years old!
Bearing children? Bear your head!
"Ahem!" Qian Mo felt that if he did not interrupt her now, she might start researching the names of his future children.
"Sis, you just got back. You must be tired, right? Why not go rest first?"
"Not tired, not tired! Seeing my precious younger brother means your sister isn't tired at all!" Qian Renxue said, planting another loud kiss on Qian Mo's cheek. "Come on, your sister will take you to breakfast! I had the Imperial Kitchen stew your favorite Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Soup!"
With that, she carried Qian Mo and strode out in a rush.
As she passed Zhu Zhuqing, she paused and shot her a look that said, "You'd better behave yourself, or else," before saying, "You too. Follow us."
Zhu Zhuqing: "..."
She felt that her future life in Spirit Hall probably... would not be very peaceful.
And so, with Qian Renxue's completely unexpected early return, Spirit Hall's new generation of three great figures—
Qian Mo, the scheming Holy Son who wanted nothing more than to lie around and coast through life;
Zhu Zhuqing, the well-behaved little kitten who had been picked up and was trying hard to adapt to her new surroundings;
And Qian Renxue, the violent older sister with overwhelming combat power and a younger-brother obsession maxed to the limit.
Finally, on this early morning, they completed their historic first gathering.
A brand-new chapter filled with chaos, laughter, and joy was about to begin.
Meanwhile, far away in the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, Xue Ye nearly died on the spot from panic after discovering that his "exceptional in both character and learning" Crown Prince had suddenly vanished.
Before you continue